A bargaining committee for the union machinists on strike at Lockheed Martin’s fighter jet plant in Fort Worth has recommended that members vote for a new contract that would eliminate traditional pensions for newly hired employees, according to a summary posted Monday on the union’s Web site. þþþThat is a victory for the company, the nation’s biggest military contractor, which had pushed for the pension change to cut costs as military budgets decline. þþLockheed agreed, in turn, to add a health insurance option that covers out-of-network services. The company would also extend the contract to a fourth year, with pay raises totaling 11 percent over the four years. þþIn its last offer before about 3,600 workers went on strike nine weeks ago, Lockheed would have given a total of 9 percent in raises over three years. þþThe latest offer, negotiated with the help of federal mediators, would also reduce a signing bonus for each worker to $2,000 from $3,000 in the earlier offer. þþThe union, District Lodge 776 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, called for a vote on the contract on Thursday. þþThe company would maintain the traditional defined-benefit pension plan for current workers and increase monthly retirement benefits by 14 percent. It would provide only 401(k)-type savings plans to new hires. þþThe union said in a statement that the federal mediator had advised it that the new offer was the best it could obtain. A union vice president, Mark Blondin, said, “While the end result leaves both sides with issues they feel were not completely resolved, the I.A.M. negotiating committee is recommending the offer to members as the best that can be achieved without a much longer work stoppage.” þþThe two sides had said on Saturday night that they had reached a tentative agreement to end the strike that began April 23 at the plant in Fort Worth and two other sites. þþThe workers had voted to strike mostly over proposed changes in health benefits and a Lockheed plan to stop offering a traditional pension to newly hired workers. þþTensions escalated as the company hired 450 temporary workers, and both sides met with federal mediators from Wednesday through Saturday. þþTop Lockheed executives had said repeatedly that the company would not budge on the pension issue. þþThe Fort Worth factory builds the new F-35 strike fighter aircraft as well as an older model, the F-16. þþLockheed had used salaried workers since the strike began to keep building the planes, though at a slower rate. þþThe union had lost leverage in recent days. More than 570 of the strikers had returned to work, and the National Labor Relations Board rejected several union complaints against the company. Pentagon officials had said they would remain neutral about the strike. þþLockheed’s earlier contract offer included pay raises of 3 percent a year for each of the next three years. The new offer calls for wage increases of 3 percent in the first year, 2.5 percent in each of the next two years and 3 percent in the fourth year. þþCompany officials said they had eliminated traditional pension plans for all salaried workers hired since 2006. They said most of the company’s unions, including other locals of the machinists union, had agreed to that change since then. þþJoe Stout, a Lockheed spokesman, said the average age of the company’s production and maintenance workers in Fort Worth was 51. Union officials could not immediately be reached for comment. þþUnion leaders said recently that they were worried Lockheed might try to eliminate the pension for current workers at some point in the future. þþWith production of the F-35 expected to increase later in the decade, the company could eventually hire 1,000 to 2,000 additional workers. þþUnion officials feared that if the new hires did not have traditional pensions, they would not support keeping the pensions for the current workers. þ
Source: NY Times
